


Another Night On Mars

by ganseyking



Category: Love Simon (2018), Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
Genre: Canon Compliant, Coming Out, Friendship, Gen, M/M, Spierfeld Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 13:12:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14333163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ganseyking/pseuds/ganseyking
Summary: Fuck.Fuck.Bram cannot believe what he is about to do.“Get in the car.” he opens the door to sit on his driving seat and Garrett gets comfortable in the front passenger seat. Bram feels his own hands trembling as he turns on the car and starts driving. “Alright, I’ll tell you what’s going on. But no one else can know about this, understood? At least not for now.”“Holy shit, Bram Greenfeld is gonna tell me his most twisted secret? Oh God, let me guess, you committed a crime? I bet it was a cyber crime, you give me those hacker vibes,” Garrett teases and Bram chuckles, rolling his eyes.Or:the day Bram came out to Garrett Laughlin and confirmed he was the best friend he could have ever got.Day Seven of Spierfeld Week





	Another Night On Mars

**Author's Note:**

> Funny story, I just freaking started reading Simon Vs. last Monday, finished it on Wednesday, watched the movie for the first time on Thursday and found out the Spierfeld Week was a thing just yesterday. And I just knew I had to write at least one fanfic because Spierfeld became my number one ship of all time during this week. This is all I could come up with. It also counts as Canon Filler and Ensemble so yeah.
> 
> The title is one of my favourite songs about friendship, from The Maine's fifth album American Candy.
> 
> Also, this is the first finished fanfic I publish here, no biggie. Leave kudos and constructive criticism, you cowards.

It’s just another Saturday afternoon. Garrett and Bram walk out of soccer practice after Nick parts from them to Abby’s house. Bram would stay at Garrett’s to play videogames with him or something. Then his mom would feed them badly done lasagna and the boys would pretend to love it. Finally, Bram would drive himself home playing all of the songs Jacques (no, Simon) had recommended him. Just a normal Saturday.

But it’s not a normal Saturday to Bram, because his whole world had changed and no one even knew. Look, within the last two days, he finally found out without a shade of doubt that Simon really is Jacques. Simon with the moon-colored eyes and the cute smiles. Simon with the Oreo obsession and the sentence fragments and the best musical taste. Simon, the boy he is terribly in love with. Simon, Simon, Simon.

But Simon didn’t think Blue was him. That shouldn’t make him feel so broken inside, right? Because after all, he didn’t want him to know, and it would be unfair if he expected him to figure it out while he did everything he could to keep his identity secret. But he was so obvious, nonetheless. And it definitely shouldn’t make him jealous that Nick and Abby mentioned how Simon was getting flirty with one of his theater mates. They weren’t boyfriends, even though sometimes they wrote to each other as if they were. Anyways, Bram shouldn’t be expecting him to stay single until he grows the balls to tell him he’s his secret email friend and, guess what, he's in love with him. When did all of this become so nauseating?

“All I’m saying is Martínez is a better goalkeeper than Banks. You saw the free kicks. It’s obvious, right? I don’t get why the coach is so fixated on benching…” Garrett glances at Bram realizing he is deep in thought, definitely not paying attention to anything he was saying. “Hey, Brammo, are you even listening to me?”

“What? Yeah. No,” Bram replies looking slightly embarrassed. “Sorry, I haven’t been listening.”

“Dude, are you okay? You know you can tell me anything,” Garrett says, getting closer to him with a concerned look in his eyes. “We’ve been friends since forever, really. I know you don’t like talking but…”

“I’m fine, seriously.” He lets out an awkward chuckle, trying to make himself look calm and composed.

“Okay, Greenfeld. But just know I’m here for you. Unless it’s about a Game of Thrones death, because I’m not up to date and I don’t want spoilers,” he jokes, but apparently Bram doesn’t look calm enough because he adds: “You can trust me, you know. I know I’m not half as smart as you or anything but I can help.”

Of course. Because pseudo-popular straight jock Garrett Laughlin is an expert in gay crushes and emails with secret identities. Right. Bram can’t just go and tell him everything on his mind after keeping it a secret for months, that’s insane.

But he’s his best friend. Besides Simon, he’s the one who knows him the most. He knows Garrett isn’t an homophobe. He loves Loras Tyrell. Bram once overheard him screaming Troye Sivan lyrics in the shower. He didn’t say anything awful about Simon coming out, even more, he congratulated him. Honestly, Garrett could sound like a douchebag sometimes but he was actually the friendliest guy ever. And Bram had already come out to his mom, so coming out to his best friend was the obvious next step.

Fuck. _Fuck._ Bram cannot believe what he is about to do.

“Get in the car.” he opens the door to sit on his driving seat and Garrett gets comfortable in the front passenger seat. Bram feels his own hands trembling as he turns on the car and starts driving. “Alright, I’ll tell you what’s going on. But no one else can know about this, understood? At least not for now.”

“Holy shit, Bram Greenfeld is gonna tell me his most twisted secret? Oh God, let me guess, you committed a crime? I bet it was a cyber crime, you give me those hacker vibes,” Garrett teases and Bram chuckles, rolling his eyes.

“What? No, shut up,” he replies. Damn, what would he even say? He wasn’t ready to do this, to do the Coming Out Thing. “I’m starting to regret this.”

“No, no, don’t say that. I promise I will keep my mouth shut and just listen and be supportive as fuck…” Garrett says while Bram stops the car by a red light.

“I’m gay,” he blurts, interrupting a somewhat shocked Garrett. And as expected, he instantly regrets it. What was he thinking? He definitely wasn’t thinking. Because sure, he would still be his friend, but everything would be awkward now. Talking about dating would be awkward. Almost anything would be awkward because honestly, now he’s not just Bram, now he’s the gay dude people with tease Garrett with. Fuck, Garrett would probably stop talking to him while they’re changing their clothes at the locker room because he wouldn’t want Bram to see him naked. Because now he knows his friend is gay, and nothing will ever be the same.

He squeezes the steering wheel as much as he can and tries to breathe slowly, inhaling in three seconds, holding the air in seven and exhaling in eight, just like he read in a website about controlling anxiety.

“Wow, I don’t know what to say.” Garrett fidgets with his fingers, which is weird for him. He looks like he’s trying hard to come up with something, making that face he always has at math exams he hadn’t studied for. “You are my bro, okay? That will never change. And I’m proud of you for being so brave to say it, because I know it’s hard for you, man. I respect you. I fucking respect you. And I will always support you, no matter what.”

“Thanks, Garrett. That means a lot.” Bram looks up to him and exhales. The red light turns to green, but he doesn’t accelerate. He feels as if a little fire is purifying his lungs, giving him new air. He doesn’t know whether he's relieved or still scared. But it doesn’t matter. “Somehow, it feels weird that you know it. I’m just so used to hiding it.”

“Yeah, I can see that. If it means something, you did a great job. I was definitely bamboozled into thinking you were straight.”

“Oh my God, dude, stop.” Bram shakes his head grinning.

“Never!” Garrett puts an arm around him and ruffles his hair with the other hand. He doesn’t stop until he gets a giggle out of Bram. “Well, Greenfeld, tell me. How did you realize? If you don’t mind me asking.”

“Well, I guess I just never felt that way about girls. There was a point in middle school when all the guys started obsessing over girls and crushes but it just didn’t happen to me. And then I had my first crushes, and you know, porn happenned.” He hears Garrett laughing besides him and he laughs too. And it’s nice. It’s great to feel so carefree for once. “I should keep driving, right?”

“Yeah, I think you fucking should.”

The car starts moving again, and in five minutes they‘re halfway to the Laughlin house. The conversation seems to be over, because Garrett took out his phone to play Geometry Dash. But now that he knows about it, and it isn’t unbearable and awkward, Bram is thinking he could ask for advice. He’s his best friend and has been in several relationships. What could go wrong?

“There’s something else,” Bram confesses, breaking the silence. “You know how people can submit anonymous posts to creeksecrets, right?”

“Yeah?” Garrett pauses the game and looks up to Bram.

“Just before Halloween I submitted one venting about everything I was feeling, the kind of stuff I don’t tell anyone. And this guy replies the post, anonymously too. And long story short, we start emailing each other.” Bram sighs, not taking the eyes from the road once. “I don’t know how to explain it, but having someone I could talk with about all the things I had been hiding for years was nice. We would talk about everything and I just… Ugh, I fell in love with him, okay? And he wrote to me like he was in love too. He wanted to get to know me, but the thing is I didn’t want to mix him up with the rest of my life so I never gave him my name, not even my phone number.”

“I know this is serious, but it sounds like such a cool premise for a telenovela. Secret pen pals who are in the same school and see each other everyday without knowing it. A secret forbidden love developing through letters. Shit, now I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“Since when do you even watch telenovelas?”

“My grandma loves them. So you don’t know who is this guy either? I mean, if you like him and he likes you…”

“Let me finish.” Bram considers whether to tell him it was Simon, but he feels it isn’t right to be out there telling people Simon is in love with him. That should be Simon’s choice. “I know who he is. I guessed and I was right, but then he guessed and he was wrong and… What if he was doing all of this because he thought I was that someone?”

“That’s harsh,” Garrett comments.

“It is. And I don’t know if I should keep this going or just let it go.”

“Greenfeld, I might be wrong but…” Garrett rethinks what he wants to say a couple minutes. “He fell in love with your emails, right? Even if he thought you were someone else, he fell for you. And you’re a cool guy, you’re probably better than whoever he was thinking of.”

“Yeah, right, whatever you say. We’re almost there.” Bram turns to the right. Indeed, they are already on Garrett’s street. “So you think I should just say ‘fuck it’ and tell him everything?”

“Yes! Man, I mean, fight for the love of your life.”

“You might be watching telenovelas too much.”

“Yeah, maybe.” He looks out of the window and waves his hand to someone, then turns his attention to Bram again. “So, this dude who has you sleepless and lovesick, what’s he like?”

Bram opens up and tells him everything. He tells him about the way he writes, the uppercases. He emphasizes on how cute and endearing are his emails. He tells him about Elliott Smith. He tells him about the Oreos. And yeah, he also slides in the fact that he has the cutest dimples and blonde hair on the universe. He’s going on in a rant about his eyes, when a stunned Garrett has to interrupt him.

“Dude, that’s my house we just passed by.”

“Really? Oh, sorry,” Bram says, blushing with a huge smile in his face. He stops the car and they both take their backpacks and get out.

“You do realize this is the most you’ve talked to me in months, right? And you come here, like, every week,” Garrett tells him as they walk up to his door. “I feel like we’re bonding. And it’s cool to watch you be so happy, you usually look like you want to fucking throw up.”

“I know, I know.” They get to the porch and Bram half sits on a fence, while Garrett just stands by him. “You know, I usually get nervous around people, especially around other guys. Even more if they're attractive. But you are the guy I am the most comfortable with and our friendship is important to me. Even if I’m not talking.”

“Oh, so you are saying I’m not attractive?” Garrett smirks and hugs eye-rolling Bram in a brotherly way. “You’re important to me too, Greenfeld. Now let's get upstairs and kill some Martians. This is getting way too emotional.”

“Okay.” He gets up and knocks the door, waiting for someone inside to open it. And in those two minutes of waiting, Bram thinks of Simon. He’s always thinking of Simon. “I think he’s angry with me. But I sent him an email that looked pretty angry, so I don’t know. I don’t feel like replying it, but I don’t wanna lose him, Garrett.”

“You, my friend, are a fucking coward. But an endearing one. You know what, you should take it slow and be subtle,” he recommended.

“I actually think I have an idea. You still have your dad’s PayPal account for online shopping, right?”

“You know I do. Wow, I’m helping Greenfeld to get laid. I’ve been dreaming with this day,” Garrett teases.

“What a freaking weirdo you are, Laughlin.” Bram rolls his eyes for a last time before Garrett’s grandma lets them in. He greets her and follows his friend upstairs. And before he realizes it, they are playing video games in his bedroom with The Maine playing on the background. Nothing has changed. And at the same time everything did.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes fellas, he's gonna get his boy an Elliott Smith t-shirt with that card.


End file.
